Fluorescence in dual-wavelength pumpedHo3+-fluorozirconate fibers

The authors study holmium-doped fluorozirconate fiber pumped simultaneously by HeNe and a laser-doped diode contrapropagating through the fiber. The experiments are described. Dual-wavelength induced fluorescence bands were identified. The two pumping wavelengths were 630 and 830 nm, and strong enhancement of the fluorescence is observed in the 545- and 750-nm ranges. The fiber fluorescence efficiency is modeled with the use of perturbation theory describing the propagation of all the waves involved in the absorption-emission process. Experimental results and theory are qualitatively in agreement     

Enhanced security protocol engineering through a unified multidimensional framework

Multidimensional security protocol engineering is effective for creating cryptographic protocols since it encompasses a variety of design, analysis, and deployment techniques, thereby providing a higher level of confidence than individual approaches offer. SPEAR II, the Security Protocol Engineering and Analysis Resource II, is a protocol engineering tool built on the foundation of previous experience garnered during the SPEAR I project in 1997. The goal of the SPEAR II tool is to facilitate cryptographic protocol engineering and to aid users in distilling the critical issues during an engineering session by presenting them with an appropriate level of detail and guiding them as much as possible during design, analysis and implementation. The SPEAR II tool currently consists of four components that have been integrated into one consistent and unified graphical interface: a protocol specification environment (GYPSIE), a GNY statement construction interface (visual GNY), a Prolog-based GNY analysis engine (GYNGER), and a message rounds calculator. The multidimensional approach realized by SPEAR II is combined with a graphical interface that focuses on making specification of a protocol and its associated conditions for formal analysis as straight forward and painless as possible. Experiments that we have conducted confirm that the analysis engine is able to generate accurate proofs for achievable GNY-based goals, while preliminary usability experiments have indicated that the interface utilized by SPEAR II is both expressive and simple to use for specifying cryptographic protocols and constructing logic statements pertaining to these protocols.     

Stress softening of elastomers in hydrostatic tension

Summary. This study is concerned with inelastic effects of non-reinforcing carbon-black filled elastomers when subjected to periodic hydrostatic loading-unloading cycles in tension. During cyclic testing of sufficient magnitude, a critical state may be reached where microcavities suddenly grow inside the rubber, possibly initiated at sites of internal imperfections. As a result of cavitation damage the tensile bulk modulus in the natural configuration is reduced. A series of hydrostatic tension tests are performed at room temperature to provide new insight into the progressive deterioration of the bulk stiffness. We define dilatational stress softening as a phenomenon where the hydrostatic stress on unloading and subsequent submaximal reloading is significantly less than that on primary loading for the same volumetric strain. Dilatational stress softening during initial loading cycles and the permanent volumetric change upon unloading are not accounted for when the mechanical properties are represented in terms of a strain-energy function, i.e. if the material is modelled as hyperelastic. In this paper a constitutive model is derived to include the progressive reduction of the bulk stiffness and the permanent volumetric change of carbon-black filled elastomers subjected to quasi–static loading. The basis of the model is the theory of pseudo-elasticity, which including a softening variable modifies the dilatational strain energy function. An acceptable correspondence between the theory and the data is obtained.     

Discovering Services Is Not Enough

Faced with multiple electronic devices, service providers, and ISPs, tomorrow's mobile users might find it challenging to identify available services and acquire the rights to use them. The authors tackle this problem, combining the acquisition of role-based credentials with servicediscovery.     

An Anti-Islanding Method for Single-Phase Inverters Based on a Grid Voltage Sensorless Control

The detection of the islanding condition of a distributed generation (DG) system is crucial for safety reasons, as discussed in the IEEE standards and specifically required by some national codes. Several anti-islanding methods that are resident in the inverter have been investigated and classified as passive (measurement of the natural effects of islanding) or active (based on the measurement of the effects due to transients or harmonics deliberately introduced in the system). In case the power drained by the load matches the power generated by the DG inverter, the effect of islanding is small, and the passive methods fail. However, the active methods, which have been developed to overcome these limits, create disturbances that can interact with those generated by other DG systems. In this paper, a new anti-islanding method is proposed. It exploits the natural sensitivity of a grid-voltage sensorless control to disturbances to highlight the islanding condition. The adopted grid-voltage sensorless control is adapted to a single-phase system with the use of resonant controllers based on the internal model control law: resonant-controller-based observer results. Then, a Kalman-filter-based algorithm is used to detect the islanding condition based on the energy mismatch between the estimated third and fifth harmonics and the real ones. Experimental results support the analysis     

The effect of hydrogen on the shear modulus of polycrystalline aluminum

Electrolytic hydrogen saturation of polycrystalline aluminum leads to a significant (up to about 30%) decrease in the shear moduli G of samples. This change in G is accompanied neither by the loss of plasticity (no hydrogen-induced brittleness) nor by a change in the electric resistance (in contrast to that observed during the hydrogenation of typical hydride-forming metals and alloys, including those in the amorphous state).     

Uniform Polarization Scattering With Fiber-Coil-Based Polarization Controllers

A detailed study of fiber-coil-based polarization controllers (PCs) is performed. First, a method to deterministically calculate the PC configuration in order to transform between any two states of polarization is presented. In a second stage, the case in which the configuration angles are randomly changed is studied. The cases of a single PC and of the system obtained with the concatenation of several PCs are analyzed. For both cases, a general expression for the variance of the Stokes parameters is obtained. Using this expression, it is demonstrated that it is possible to achieve uniform polarization scattering using a concatenation of fiber-coil-based PCs. Finally, it is shown that fiber-coil-based PCs can be used to emulate both first- and second-order polarization-mode dispersions     

Laser stimulated low-temperature crystallization of amorphous silicon

Laser annealing of amorphous silicon (a-Si) at different initial temperatures (77 and 300 K) has been studied. It is established that the laser-stimulated crystallization of silicon is possible at relatively low temperatures. A theoretical model is proposed, which explains this phenomenon by melting via the electron mechanism followed by recrystallization.